Graphene producer NanoXplore and its partner, Martinrea International, have announced a joint venture, VoltaXplore Inc., formed to develop electric vehicle (EV) batteries enhanced with graphene.

A VoltaXplore demonstration facility is scheduled to be opened in Montreal, Canada, within the next year for the development and production of EV batteries enhanced with graphene. The Companies stated that a successful demonstration of improved battery performance using graphene, along with positive feedback from customers, will support the business case for the construction of a battery production facility in Canada.

Haydale has announced that it has been awarded funding of £138,549 (around USD$192,290) to develop hydrogen fuel cell tanks by the Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC).

To support the future of green automotive manufacturing and accelerate the UK's transition to net- zero emission vehicles, the Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC) has guided £9.4 million in public funding to 22 feasibility studies looking to scale up the industrialization of low-carbon emission vehicle technologies.

Applied Graphene Materials (AGM) has announced that its customer, Constellation Chemicals, has launched two new sealants in its car detailing product range enhanced with AGM’s graphene nanoplatelet technology.

The two products, Parallax, a graphene-enhanced ceramic sealant and Gravity, a graphene-enhanced snow sealant, launch after research and testing by Constellation Chemicals. The growing UK-based manufacturer of car care products claims that they offer performance enhancements such as hydrophobicity, chemical resistance to acid rain, road salt and bird lye and produce excellent durability, gloss, water repellence and beading.

UK-based Paragraf has announced a new graphene Hall Effect sensor, said to be ideally suited to battery applications, such as the electric vehicle (EV) sector.

The graphene GHS01AT Hall Effect sensor is optimized for use in relatively low field environments and normal ambient temperatures. Bringing the magnetic field measurement resolution towards that of more complex magnetic sensors, yet with the small size and ease of use of a Hall sensor, it can address monitoring tasks that conventional technologies simply cannot provide an effective solution for.

Skeleton Technologies, Estonia-based manufacturer of graphene-enhanced supercapacitors, and Marubeni Corporation, one of Japan’s largest conglomerates, have signed a strategic cooperation agreement to support commercial scale-up and customer acquisition for Skeleton’s supercapacitors in the Asian automotive sector, with a strong focus on electrified vehicles and hydrogen transportation.

As part of this agreement, Marubeni Corporation also made an equity investment on top of the €41.3 million Series D financing round announced by Skeleton in November 2020. The sum of Marubeni’s investment was not disclosed.

South Korea-based Graphene Square, developer and distributor of graphene materials and films, has announced that it is preparing for an IPO to fuel global expansion. It will select the underwriter this year and plans its Kosdaq listing in 2022 through the Technology Special Listing program, a system introduced in 2005 to allow promising startups to list the local bourse based on a technology evaluation conducted by Korea Exchange-designated institutions.

Graphene Square’s competitive edge is said to be found in its proprietary chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method used for the production of graphene. The method is based on the research of Professor Hong Byung-hee of Seoul National University on the synthesis of large-area graphene. In fact, Graphene Square itself was established in 2012 as a spin-off of chemistry professor Hong Byung-hee’s lab at Seoul National University.

India-based start-up Log 9 has announced the development of its new graphene-enhanced battery for electric vehicles. Log 9 states its Rapid Charging Battery Technology is capable of fully charging in under 15 minutes and that it has a lifetime of over 15 years of use.

Other claims made by Log 9 include up to 5x power which would help in increased load-bearing capacity and acceleration. Additionally, the Company says that it is 5-times safer than lithium-ion batteries in terms of fire-resistance and impact-resistance. Log 9 says that its new batteries would offer a range of up to 70 kilometers for two-wheel EVs and 60-80 kilometers for three-wheel EVs.

Applied Graphene Materials has announced that its customer, Infinity Wax, a major manufacturer of car care products in Europe, has launched a second car care product enhanced with the Company's graphene technology. Using AGM's Genable graphene nanoplatelet dispersions, Infinity Wax has launched Graphene Wax, a new generation of high performance car wax.

A few months ago, in September 2020, the same companies joined to launch a graphene-enhanced car polish. Now, Infinity Wax reported that it launched the new Graphene Wax following the success of its graphene-enhanced car polish. The new product offers outstanding water beading and sheeting properties as a result of increased hydrophobicity, resulting in long term paint protection. Graphene Wax makes it easy to wipe away dirt, enabling car owners to achieve a professional wax shine.

GAC Group recently announced "a major achievement in battery technology". GAC stated that it achieved breakthrough progress with its graphene-based super-fast-charging battery and has now entered the phase of actual vehicle testing. Aion V, the first vehicle to be equipped with the battery, is undergoing winter testing and is initially scheduled for mass production in September this year.

In May 2020, GAC announced its plan to mass produce graphene-enhanced battery for EVs by the end of 2020, and in September 2020, GAC announced setting up a unit that specializes in graphene that has begun research and development of fast-charging technology for electric vehicles. In November 2020, GAC stated that it expects to test its battery in production vehicles by the end of 2020, however - whether it can eventually be put into mass production will have to await the results of real-vehicle testing. It appears that now, GAC has decided to go forward with its graphene batteries, launching the Aion V in les than a year (if all will go according to its plans).

China Carbon Graphite Group, Chinese manufacturer of graphene and graphite-based products, has announced that together with the research and development team of its subsidiary, Royal Elite New Energy Science and Technology ("Roycarbon"), the company is developing a new silicon graphene nanocomposite product for next-gen lithium-ion batteries.

This upcoming product is expected to replace the current anode material and would provide improvements in electrochemical performance for the latest EV and mobile device batteries.